trends, issues, and resources of interest to the Hawaii legislative community
hawaii legislative reference bureau library

10.06.2009

Good dog, bad dog

According to recent Pew surveys, Americans positively view news media as political watchdogs, discouraging leaders "from doing things that should not be done." However, just 29% of Americans think news reporting to be accurate, down from an 55% in 1985.

Partisan politics also play a role in supporting press criticism of political leaders.

In the most recent survey, 65% of Republicans said press criticism of political leaders does more good than harm; in four surveys during the Bush administration, far fewer Republicans expressed this view (51% in 2001; 43% in 2003; 44% each in 2005 and 2007).

Democrats, by contrast, have become less supportive of a watchdog role for the press than they were during the Bush administration. In September, most Democrats (55%) saw more benefit than harm from press criticism of political leaders, but that was down substantially from 71% in 2007.

What most Americans agree on is the major loss were the news media to completely disappear, including regional and national television, newspapers and websites.